andru183 from the Ubuntu Ireland LoCo team describes his first experiences with Linux and the Irish LoCo, and encourages those who are interested to contact him to help reboot the LoCo again and hold an Ubuntu hour.

Ben Howard announces the automated release updates for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, 11.10, 12.04 LTS and 12.10. Within 24 hours of a Kernel SRU Release these images are now fully enabled and indicates of where the release notes will be placed are available.

Didier Roche wraps up his series of blogging about the daily release of Unity by composing a FAQ for upstream developers and Ubuntu maintainers and by saying thanks to all the people who made the daily release possible.

The Kubuntu team announces the availability of KDE SC 4.10 for Kubuntu 12.04, 12.10 and 13.04 and describes the way for Kubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 users to upgrade to KDE SC 4.10 via the Kubuntu Backports PPA.

Elizabeth Krumbach, from the Ubuntu Women team, writes about their latest IRC presentation from Flavia Weisghizzi and Silvia Bindelli of the UbuntuWomen-it team. They talked about their initiative to overcome the linguistic and cultural barriers that an English mailing list may represent for non native-English speakers as well as their mentoring programs and a collaboration with a local blog.

Nicholas Skaggs announces the start of QA Cadence Week 6 and encourages new contributors to help. There will be two live sessions held on the 11th and 14th of February to demonstrate the test executions.

Elizabeth Krumbach of the Ubuntu Classroom announces the final session from the Quality Assurance Team: "Your first ISO test" by Howard Chan (smartboyhw). Ubuntu Classroom has posted the available logs in the past QA sessions.

Jose Antonio Rey wraps up the Ubuntu User Days with a post linking to logs from the sessions. Attendees could attend variety of sessions, from an "Introduction to Ubuntu" to "How to solve problems - Ask Ubuntu! through Launchpad".

Michael Hinkins of the Wall Street Journal writes about the new Ubuntu smartphone and writes that although it is attractive for corporate IT users, its challenges will be to overcome the large trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Hinkins also reveals "Mr. Shuttleworth said the new phone operating system will be available in two large geographic markets in October"

Matt Hartley of Datamation talks about the things he believes Ubuntu does right and wrong and expresses hope that the Ubuntu team can add some of the needed additions that he proposed, like parental controls and a migration from Windows wizard.

Katherine Noyes of IT World writes about current accessibility offerings in Linux and focuses in on the the Ubuntu-based Sonar Project that developer Jonathan Nadeau describes is: "Not just for blind and low vision people, but for people who struggle with dyslexia and learning disabilities as well as accessibility for people with low motor skills and quadriplegics."

Ali Andrei reports that whitelisting in Ubuntu will no longer be available in Ubuntu 13.04. However, the good news is that most apps will now come with AppIndicators which put apps on the notification bar and make the need for whitelists unnecessary. Java and wine apps will have to be "hard-coded" as they might not have AppIndicator support.

Fast Co. Design interviews Ivo Weevers, Canonical's Head of Design, and Mika Meskanen, Lead Phone UX designer, about the original ideas that formed the gesture-centric Ubuntu Phone User Interface (UX).

Daniel Holbach interviews the Edubuntu team about their involvement in the Ubuntu project, their vision of Edubuntu, and its current state (i.e. what possibilities it offers, which devices will be enabled for it and much more).

"Chuck, Bucky, and Philbare are back to take you on a safari and eat cookies! Catch the fun at UDS in Copenhagen where the real purpose of the event is revealed by the illustrious Jono Bacon. The crew talks about getting people to Mars in a fun way (with Avaneya and Ubuntu), party shenanigans with Michael Hall, Ubuntuism and other 'isms that aren't so human, the insignificance of borders, companies that track your embarrassing search habits (just for giggles of course), circuses, flags, and athletes. Not enough? Well then, how about asking what needs to be changed in Ubuntu? More nachos perhaps?!"

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate